Chronicle Spring 2022

34 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Healthy Relationships By James Cope, Assistant Head Pastoral Recent events, and two in particular, have meant that Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is increasingly at the forefront of our pupils’ education.

school and, as ever, is a request for feedback from any member of our wide community who may have ideas to share. Whilst some immediate steps have been taken, it is a complex and deep-rooted issue which will be addressed over time. Our first response was to encourage any current or former pupils to contact us if they had been victims of assault or harassment during their time at St Edward’s so that support could be given and lessons learned. It goes without saying that the invitation to contact us remains. Importantly, and as hoped, this process also enabled us to engage more generally with OSE and current pupils. We had a series of discussions with OSE and a number of

The Government made RSE a statutory requirement in all schools a few years ago. Furthermore, the majority of those reading this will be aware of Everyone’s Invited the movement started by Soma Sara in June 2020 to create a platform where young people were encouraged to record, anonymously, their experiences of misogyny, sexual harassment, assault and abuse. It received a surge of contributions and by June 2021 had more than 15,000 entries, prompting a review by Ofsted. This platform raised major concerns for schools and for society; the picture was disturbing but the key point is that it provided an opportunity for change. This article outlines how we are responding as a

Hortensia Pasta and Melissa Charles relax in the sun

Annabel Bates, Rob Murdoch and Charlie Varey at a waffle night for Segar’s and Oakthorpe